Former PL star David James believes player Arsenal sold would be 'perfect' for them right now
Football pundit David James recently claimed that Arsenal made a mistake by selling goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez to Aston Villa. He believes that the Argentine would have been the perfect goalkeeper for the Gunners right now.
Speaking on former England teammate David Seaman's podcast, Seaman Says, James opined that David Raya and Aaron Ramsdale were both not better than Martinez. He believed that the Gunners should have given him the chance over Bernd Leno and said (via TBRFootball):
“It’s interesting when you look at the Raya situation at Arsenal, the Ramsdale situation at Arsenal and the fact that Martinez was allowed to go because of Leno, who’s a decent goalkeeper but doesn’t necessarily have character. Martinez would have been the perfect goalkeeper, I think, for Arsenal right now.”
Mikel Arteta's side sold Martinez to Aston Villa in 2020 and the Argentine has since been successful, also winning the Qatar World Cup. He is widely regarded as one of the best goalkeepers in the world.
Manchester United legend believes Arsenal have been proven wrong about Emi Martinez
Peter Schmeichel believes Emiliano Martinez has proven his former employers wrong with his performances since leaving the club. He believes that the goalkeeper is one of the best in the world right now and has gone on to improve much more than the Gunners expected him to.
Schmeichel said on the Stick to Football podcast (via Football365):
“Martinez, I think he has proven Arsenal wrong, for sure. I think he’s a big personality and I think he’s helping that team [Villa] a lot. Will he be able to do the job at Man City? I don’t know. To be honest, I don’t know. But he’s a winner, obviously a World Cup winner, he’s just won the Copa [America]. So he’s getting there as well.”
“The thing is, that mentality, not a lot of goalkeepers are doing that. But he does that, which I think he’s brilliant, he’s coming out in a period of the game, it’s fantastic if he does, but there are so many people in front of him, when you come out you’re looking at the ball, I [the goalkeeper] might run into the defender and then the goal’s empty, you think about that. The time wasting, I don’t like that bit of it, but he really, really kept his team in it [against Manchester City]. He took the sting out of it,” he added.
The Gunners signed Raya on a permanent deal this summer from Brentford after a loan spell last season. They also sold Aaron Ramsdale to Southampton while bringing in Neto on loan as his replacement.